grammar - Can one use "hopefully" in an absolute sense?


Bill Bryson, author of the recent best-seller "A Short History of Nearly Everything", in one of his books says:



We must never use hopefully in an absolute sense, such as "Hopefully it will not rain tomorrow".



After having read that assertion many times, I'm still not able to understand what Bill Bryson means.


Precisely, what does absolute sense mean in that statement and in reference to hopefully?


Is hopefully correctly used in "Hopefully it will not rain tomorrow"? If not, why? Can anybody shed a bit of light to clarify what Bill Bryson says?




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